Editing Epicureanism (section)

=== Misconceptions ===
In modern popular usage, an Epicurean is a connoisseur of the arts of life and the refinements of sensual pleasures; ''Epicureanism'' implies a love or knowledgeable enjoyment especially of good food and drink.

Because Epicureanism posits that pleasure is the ultimate good (''[[telos]]''), it has been commonly misunderstood since ancient times as a doctrine that advocates the partaking in fleeting pleasures such as sexual excess and decadent food. This is not the case. Epicurus regarded ''[[ataraxia]]'' (tranquility, freedom from fear) and ''[[aponia]]'' (absence of pain) as the height of happiness. He also considered prudence an important virtue and perceived excess and overindulgence to be contrary to the attainment of ataraxia and aponia.<ref name="ReferenceA"/> Yet Epicurus referred "the good", and "even wisdom and culture", to the "pleasure of the stomach".<ref>Cyril Bailey, Epicurus: The Extant Remains, Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1926, p.131</ref>

While Epicurus sought moderation at meals, he was also not averse to moderation in moderation, that is, to occasional luxury.<ref>[[Diogenes Laërtius]], ''Lives of the Eminent Philosophers,'' Book X, Section 18</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.attalus.org/poetry/philodemus.html#11.44 |title=Philodemus: Epigrams (excerpted from The Greek Anthology 11.44)|publisher=Attalus}}</ref> Called "The Garden" for being based in what would have been a kitchen garden, his community also became known for its Eikas (Greek εἰκάς from εἴκοσῐ ''eíkosi'', "twenty"),<ref>Frischer, Bernard (1982), The Sculpted Word: Epicureanism and Philosophical Recruitment in Ancient Greece, Berkeley, California: University of California Press. pp. 42</ref> feasts of the twentieth (of the Greek month),<ref>{{cite book |last=Cicero |title=De Finibus Bonorum Et Malorum |url=https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Cicero/de_Finibus/2*.html |page=II.101}}</ref> which was otherwise considered sacred to the god [[Apollo]], and also corresponding to the final day of the rites of initiation to the mysteries of [[Demeter]].<ref>DeWitt, Norman Wentworth (1964), Epicurus and His Philosophy, Minneapolis, Minnesota: University of Minnesota Press. pp. 104-105</ref>